VESTAL, N.Y. – The top two seeds in the 2016 America East Softball Championship advanced to Friday’s winner’s bracket final as #1 Binghamton got a walk-off home run to beat #4 Stony Brook, 7-6 in eight innings, and #2 Maine used a five-run fourth inning to beat #3 Albany, 7-4, on day two of the 2016 Softball Championship Thursday at Bearcats Sports Complex. Stony Brook beat UMBC in the day’s third game, 5-2, to avoid elimination.
The Bearcats and Black Bears will kick off Friday’s action at 11 a.m. The Great Danes will play the Seawolves in the second game at 1:30 p.m. The Binghamton-Maine loser will play the Albany-Stony Brook winner in the third game of the day at 4 p.m.
Visit Championship Central for links to box scores and highlights from Wednesday’s game and watch live and live stats links for Thursday’s game. Stay tuned to AmericaEast.com and follow America East on Twitter for weather related updates.
Binghamton 7, Stony Brook 6 (8 innings)
Jessica Rutherford led off the bottom of the eighth inning by lining a home run to right-center field as top-seeded Binghamton walked off with a 7-6 eight-inning win over fourth-seeded Stony Brook in the fourth game of the 2016 Softball Championship Thursday at Bearcats Sports Complex.
The Bearcats, the America East regular-season champion and reigning league champion, overcame deficits of 3-0, 5-2 and 6-5 in a back-and-forth contest to win Thursday.
Stony Brook broke through in its half of the third by plating three runs. America East All-Rookie selection Irene Rivera had an RBI double Reynolds to left and scored, along with Diane Caruso, on Chelsea Evans’ base hit to right to give Stony Brook a 3-0 lead.
Binghamton, which left six runners on base through four frames, got on the scoreboard in the fifth and cut Stony Brook’s lead to 3-2. Lisa Cadogan delivered a sac fly and Taylor Chaffee had a run-scoring single.
Patty Borges and Ileana Torres delivered run-scoring hits for Stony Brook in the top of the sixth as it regained its two run lead. But, the Bearcats, who entered the day ranked sixth in the country with a .353 team batting average, rallied to tie the game 5-5 in the 6th. After Jillian Bovitt scored on a groundout, Rutherford, a first-team All-Conference, stroked a two-run single into right-center field to tie the game.
Danielle Kemp scored on a fielder's choice to give Stony Brook back the lead, 6-5, entering the home half of the seventh. But Binghamton, loaded the bases and tied the game on a bases loaded walk by Bracchi. That set up Rutherford for her heroics as she blasted a leadoff homer to right center to end the game.
Rutherford finished 2-for-5 with three RBI. Evans and Kellie Reynolds had three hits each to lead Stony Brook. The two teams combined for 27 hits with the Seawolves banging out 15 and the Bearcats adding 12.
Maine 7, Albany 4
Behind a five-run fourth inning, second-seeded Maine beat third-seeded Albany, 7-4, in the fifth game of the 2016 Softball Championship Thursday at Bearcats Sports Complex.
Albany scored two in the top of the first without a hit, plating a pair on three walks and two hit batters.
After three scoreless innings, Maine's bats came alive with two outs in the fourth inning. Felicia Lennon started things by doubling before scoring on Alyssa Derrick's single to right center. Pinch runner Laurine German scored on Kristen Niland's single up the middle. Maddie Decker then entered as a pinch hit and crushed a long fly ball to left that stayed inside the foul pole and left the yard, giving Maine a 5-2 lead.
The Black Bears, who have their best tournament seed since 2010, added two runs in the fifth. Lennon's tripled to right driving in a run and scored a throwing error to give Maine a 7-4 lead.
The Great Danes added single runs in the sixth and seventh on a walk by Maggie Cocks and single by Kayla Bailey, obut reliever Erin Bogdanovich, the America East Pitcher of the Year, saved it for Molly Flowers to send Maine to the winner’s bracket final.
Stony Brook 5, UMBC 2
First-team All-Conference standout Allie Pisciotta crushed two home runs to lead fourth-seeded Stony Brook to a 5-2 win over fifth-seeded UMBC in the second elimination game of the 2016 America East Softball Championship Thursday at Bearcats Sports Complex.
UMBC got on the board in the first when Bridget O'Malley after Carly Lesko hit a grounder to third that wasn’t handled by Stony Brook's third baseman allowing O'Malley to put the Retrievers up 1-0.
A pair of UMBC errors allowed Stony Brook to take a 2-1 lead in the third, but UMBC got the run right back in the bottom of the fourth on Jordan Sganga’s sacrifice fly.
Pisciotta accounted for the rest of the scoring, giving Stony Brook a 3-2 lead with a solo home run in the fifth and then added two insurance runs in the seventh with her second blast of the day.
Jane Sallen closed out the game to earn the save. She threw three scoreless innnigs of relief, allowing just two runs.